The Beautiful Game

The A-League is in absolutely no doubt its healthiest ever state - record attendances and record memberships, combined with a higher degree of marquee quality is getting fans and administrators excited this year. Add to that, some bloke from Spain amongst the plethora of quality foreigners seen around the league, a dedicated channel for football on Fox Sports, and live Friday night SBS coverage, it appears everyone is matching this increased interest with improved media to keep fans in the loop, however one Melbourne clubs is bucking this trend. Melbourne City have seemingly implemented an almost blanket ban on media relationships from higher ranking officials to their player, meaning most media communication is being done by the coach. The move is one of many changes implemented by the City Group that was seen when they first took over at Manchester City. As a result there has been a significant decrease in the amount of information fans and other media outlets have acc...

The A-League is back and with it comes the fanatical, vocal support unlike anything in Australia. Victory opened the season this year against the Wanderers in what is, hands down noisiest match the league has to offer. This fixture's timing in particular was rather fitting considering the importance the League has placed on first round impact in recent years. Over two thousand Wanderers faithful made the trip south to support their beloved team against  Australia's biggest club and even as an outsider, boy did they deliver. Melbourne was treated to 90 minutes of passion similar to that of the early seasons of the A-League that Melbourne was once accustomed to... It's no secret the atmosphere at Melbourne games isn't what it once was. Amazingly an a different type of growth either end of the ground has changed the match day experience. The South end have grown like a maturing professional and organised chanting is seldom at best. It's participants are c...

It may come as a shock to you but not everyone at TBG is a passionate football mad fan, well to be honest most of us are but I can't honestly say that I fit into that catagory. It seems like an odd thing to say, especially considering there has been nothing written by our group for close to 8 months and that this has to be the unfortunate ice-breaker. It is however true that during yet another excruciatingly long A-League off-season I have found myself bored to death and bar the Socceroos' qualification to the FIFA World Cup, football has lost my attention. What is that I hear? What about summer transfers? Internationals? The imminent return of major European football? Quite frankly I could not care less and never really have. I have never followed European football at any level with the same passion as my favourite A-League team, am barley in touch with the couple of national teams I feel represent me (including the Socceroos) and my knowledge of players is largely...

This has been a huge off-season for the A-League and the FFA as they prepare for arguably the biggest and most important season of Australian domestic football to date. Fans have been forced to wait over 5 months to see their teams compete in the top domestic competition and with over 2 months to go we must ask ourselves and our governing body, have we done enough? Sadly this wasn't the worst photo we could find. It will take a while to cement  football in Australian  sporting culture All dedicated a-league fans know why the off-season was elongated, the fixture was strategically moved to begin in October but we’re not here to talk about the off-season now, we’re here to ask of the work that has been done during it. We can narrow the FFA off-season work to 3 things: ·          -  New Fixture and league restructure ·         -   Fan forums and communication and ·         -  Marketing The FF...